Blog: FEW needs speakers, award nominations, scholarships

The International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo is not ‘til June, but there’s things to do now. If you have a topic you’d like to speak on, the deadline to submit an abstract is Feb. 24. Yes, it’s four months ahead of the event, but that’s need to have adequate time to review the abstracts and build the program in order to properly promote the event. Having a successful event requires a solid program and enough time to spread the word to get a good turnout.

Building the FEW program is a bit of a feat – there’s nearly 150 speakers in the four tracks: production and operations, leadership and financial management, coproducts and product diversification, infrastructure and market development. The last track, infrastructure and market development, was new last year and covered topics like E15, specs and the global marketplace.

We rely upon the industry—producers, equipment and service providers—to fill those speaking slots. If you have an idea, be sure to submit a short presentation abstract. The website gives some tips on how to write a strong abstract.

The new track replaced the popular cellulosic ethanol track of old that moved last year into the collocated National Advanced Biofuels Conference & Expo. There’s two tracks in that conference: advanced and cellulosic ethanol in one track and biodiesel and other advanced biofuels in the second. Given the widespread production of corn oil at ethanol plants, learning more about the biodiesel industry that uses a lot of that corn oil is of interest. Biobutanol is in the other advanced biofuels category as well.

There’s two other things to know well-ahead of the June 19-21 conference. If you have any thoughts about worthy individuals for the annual awards – the High Octane and Award of Excellence—there’s a tab on the top menu bar for the awards page where you can nominate individuals. Don’t worry about filling in every single piece of information requested, but do take the time to make a compelling case why the person you’re nominating deserves the award. The deadline for that isn’t until May, so you have time.

Also, remember to encourage the students among you about the FEW Kathy Bryan Memorial Scholarship. Two $2,000 scholarships will be given to employees of any ethanol plant in the U.S. or Canada or to a member of the employee’s immediate family. High school seniors and college students will find the applications on the link just given, or at the FEW website on the top toolbar under scholarships. The deadline isn’t until May, so there’s time. Please help spread the word.